In this guide 6 sections
Figures move after a refresh because the source moved. Late entries land in a closed month, vouchers get back dated, masters such as customer groups are edited, or a filter differs between runs. Freeze each month at close and show a last refreshed stamp so everyone reads the same version.
The source changed, not the dashboard
A dashboard is a mirror. It adds nothing of its own. It shows what the accounting or sales system held at the moment of the last refresh. If last month’s total differs from last week’s, something in the source system changed in between.
Resist the urge to blame the formula first. Check the source. Pull the same month straight from the source, for example a ledger report with the same dates, and compare it with the dashboard. If they match, the refresh is faithful and the question becomes what changed upstream.
Then compare the two refreshes. Keep a copy of the earlier figures. Then look for the rows that differ, grouped by voucher type and by entry date, since that grouping usually points to the guilty posting.
Late and back dated entries
Accounts staff post purchase bills, credit notes and journal vouchers days after the month ends. Many systems let them use the original date, so a voucher keyed on the fifth lands in the previous month. The total rises while nobody touched the dashboard. Nobody did anything wrong either.
Sales teams do the same with delayed invoices. A returns entry for a damaged consignment can arrive three weeks later. A returns entry for a damaged consignment can arrive three weeks later and reduce a month already reported to the board.
Compare the entry date with the voucher date on the changed rows; if entry dates sit after the month end, you have found the cause.
- Voucher date versus the date it was actually keyed
- Credit notes and returns posted after close
- Journal entries made for audit adjustments
- Cancelled and re-issued invoices
Edited masters and shifting filters
Masters feed the groupings on the dashboard. If a customer is moved from the Retail group to Wholesale, every past sale to that customer now shows under Wholesale. The grand total holds still. The region and category totals shift.
The same happens when an item is renamed, a salesperson leaves or a branch is merged. History follows the master unless the model stores the old value at the time of sale. Most models do not.
Filters cause quieter changes. One refresh may exclude cancelled documents and the next may include them. A slicer left on a single branch by the last person who saved the file produces a smaller total with no error.
Freeze the month and stamp the refresh
Agree a month close date. After it, store a snapshot of that month’s figures in a separate table or file, and let the dashboard read closed months from the snapshot. Late entries then flow into the current month as adjustments, labelled as such.
Put a last refreshed date and time on every page, in a corner where nobody can miss it. When two managers quote different numbers, the first question becomes which refresh each looked at.
Add a small reconciliation card. It shows the dashboard total beside the ledger total for the same period, with the difference. A difference of zero builds trust. A growing one is an early warning that something upstream is slipping.
- Month close date agreed by finance and sales
- Snapshot table for closed months
- Last refreshed stamp on each page
- Reconciliation card against the ledger
Write down the rules for corrections
Decide who may post into a closed month and how it is reported. A short rule works: closed months stay frozen, corrections post to the current month with a note, and the owner approves any restatement of a closed month.
Share the rule with accounts, sales and the people who read the dashboard. Most disputes end when everyone knows a moved figure is a documented correction, not an error.
Review the adjustments each month. Fix the habits behind the most frequent ones.
Month close and refresh log
A log of one page in two blocks. The first block lists each month with its close date, the frozen total, the ledger total and the difference. The second block records each refresh with date, time, source cut-off, filters applied, who ran it and any figure that moved with the reason.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Is it normal for last month’s numbers to change?
Small moves are normal while a month is still open. After close they should stop. If they continue, entries are reaching the closed month and the close rule needs enforcing.
How can I tell whether the dashboard or the source is wrong?
Run the same period straight from the source system and compare; if the two agree, the dashboard is correct and the source changed. If not, check the filters and joins.
Should the dashboard store history?
For closed months, yes. A snapshot table keeps the figures as reported, so later edits to masters do not rewrite the past.
Who should own the month close?
Usually the finance head. Sales and operations agree to stop posting into closed periods, and the dashboard owner builds the snapshot from that date.